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A Half Century 

in 

Washington 




Compliments of 
SIMON WOLF 

April, 1922 






transfer 

y22 



At the invitation of the Commercial, now City, Club of this city, 
the Honorable Simon Wolf on his seventy-eighth birthday, October 
28, 1914, addressed the members of the Club, the subject being 
"A Half Century in Washington." He said in part: 

Mr. Chairman and Members : 

My first visit to Washington was in 1860 ; being a member of 
the Democratic Convention which convened that year in the City 
of Baltimore. I wished to pay my respects to President Buchanan 
and to Stephen A. Douglas. A curious coincidence, which as far 
as I can remember has never been spoken of, is that the Democratic 
party that year split asunder, which made the election of Abraham 
Lincoln, nominated in Chicago, a possibility. In 1912 the Repub- 
lican party split asunder in Chicago, which lead to the election of 
Woodrow Wilson, who was nominated in Baltimore. Thus history 
repeats itself. 

My next visit to Washington was in June, 1862, since which 
time, with the exception of one year when I was United States 
Minister to Egypt, I have constantly resided here. 

General McClellan was fighting the battles known as those of 
the Peninsular, ending by his being superseded by General Pope 
who fought the second battle of Bull Run. General Pope tele- 
graphed to Washington that he wanted civilians to come down to 
aid him in taking care of prisoners, and to bring supplies, stores 
and bandages. Among others I volunteered to go, hiring a horse 
and buggy, loading it down with supplies, but when I came on the 
battle field, instead of taking care of prisoners, I was made a pris- 
oner. My horse and buggy and stores were promptly confiscated, 
and I was ordered to be sent to Richmond. Fortunately the Com- 
manding Officer recognized the hailing sign of distress of a free- 
mason, and I was promptly returned to the city. 

I do not care to enter into the ebb and flow of the contending 
armies, which for years struggled on this or the other side of the 
Potomac, and in the great West. Enough to say that the War 
ended, and the great review of May, 1865, took place. It was a great 
illuminating spectacle. Two hundred thousand men, the Army of 
the Potomac and the Army of the West, under their respective 
heroic leaders marched up Pennsylvania Avenue to be reviewed 
by President Johnson — Abraham Lincoln unfortunately having 
been assassinated the month before. To witness these citizens of 

3 



the United States, laying down their arms and returning to their 
respective homes, was a sight that can never be forgotten, and 
which typified and exemplified in the highest degree, the spirit of 
our American institutions. The War ended in a closer bond of 
union between the North and South than ever existed prior thereto. 
The names of Grant, Sherman and Sheridan, of Lee, Jackson and 
Longstreet, are intertwined with each other and will go down in 
the annals of history as heroic figures of a great struggle, each 
doing his duty according to his own conscience, and all represent- 
ing that splendid American spirit which has so far been the guid- 
ing motive and impulse of the American people. 

The Spanish War of '98 accentuated this sentiment still more 
closely, and the sons of the Southland, New England, of the great 
Northwest, stood shoulder to shoulder in defense of the flag, and 
to expel from our shores the last vestige of a European Mon- 
archy. Let us hope and trust that this spirit of concord and good 
will and national progress may continue for all time. That sec- 
tionalism will die, and that the American spirit of unity will ever 
be preserved, and as President Wilson has said, that the provin- 
cialism of prejudice will be banished from our shores. 

The Washington of 1865 with that of today can only be realized 
by remembering the epigrammatic remark of Charles Dickens when 
he said it was a city of magnificent distances. George Washington 
and the great French engineer L 'Enfant had made splendid plans 
for the Capital of a great Republic, but they were principally un- 
developed, and it was only when General Grant became President 
and Alexander R. Shepherd, Governor of the District, aided as he 
was by hundreds of the leading citizens, that the golden opportun- 
ity came for a new Washington, and the magnificent public build- 
ings, the palatial private residences, the clean streets, the umbra- 
geous parking, the beautiful parks, the splendid lighting, all bear 
evidences of the indomitable energy, perseverance, genius and self- 
sacrifice of those men who, notwithstanding the enmity and oppro- 
brium of small men, went on fearlessly in the pursuit of what they 
knew was right and just, and we can truthfully say today, as Sir 
James Bryce said before the Geographical Society, that Washing- 
ton is not only now, but is destined to be, the most beautiful and 
artistic Capital of the world. We are here a polyglot population — 
.ill sections of the country, and indeed of the world, are represented. 
We are not a manufacturing city, nor are we blessed with multi- 

4 



millionaires, bul we have men and women of the highest culture, 
social standing, refinement; men and women who vie with each 
other to make this city "a thing of beauty and a joy forever." The 
time is sure to come when the McMillan plan will be realized; 
when the whole District of Columbia will be one beautiful speed- 
way; when the memorial bridge of Arlington shall be erected; when 
in every part of our public parks there will he erected not only 
monuments and busts to the army and navy heroes, but to those of 
the midnight lamp, whose inventions and discoveries, whose con- 
tributions to arts and science, have made the world better and 
happier. Washington will become a great educational center, from 
which will radiate an influence for higher ideals. Let us then be 
thankful that while Europe is convulsed in a bloody struggle for 
commercial supremacy, we in this country are blessed with peace, 
living contentedly under our own vine and fig tree, at war with no 
one, inspired by the loftiest ideals of patriotism, to bring home to 
our children and our children's children, the blessings of peace and 
good will, and let us never prove recreant to the high and holy 
trust reposed in us. We are not only, as citizens of Washington, 
trustees for the nation, but we also must evidence by our work, 
that we have learned the lesson of being loyal and patriotic Ameri- 
cans and that our highest ambition is to transmit to future gen- 
erations the inestimable boon of enjoying liberty without license, 
ever appreciative of that still greater blessing, the right of con- 
science and free worship, so that while every creed shall be undis- 
turbed, no one creed shall dominate over the other. 

One great factor that cannot be too much deplored in our com- 
munal life is the lack of unity. We have too many divergent local 
organizations, working for their individual aggrandizement, and 
ignoring the high standards of the city. We are not paupers, al- 
though governed by Congress. We are to all intents and purposes 
devoted to the best interests of the nation which are reflected in the 
prosperity of the Capital, and therefore harmony and concerted 
action is essential to the greater development and possibilities of 
the future. The time was in the past, — I remember being one of 
the men that made it possible — when leaders of both Houses of 
Congress, members of the Cabinet, and even the President, were 
invited to evening receptions or dinner, not for the purpose of brib- 
ing them, but for the purpose of acquainting them with our aims 
and objects and the needs of the Capital. It was a wise plan and 

5 



worked well. Let us endeavor to prove to the nation's legislators 
that what we seek is not to help ourselves, but to help each other, 
and not to legislate for the representative city of the nation on a 
sectarian or local basis, but in a broad national spirit that shall vin- 
dicate the highest ethics of the past and of the future. We old resi- 
dents can only be reminiscent, we are in the winter of life, but you 
young men are in the springtime of golden opportunity, see to it 
that the City that bears the name of the Father of this blessed Re- 
public, shall continue to be the most beautiful, the most orderly 
Capital in the world. 



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